Jorge A. Romero‘s The dawn of the Dead came 10 years after he invented the modern zombie movie with 1968 Night of the Living Dead. To commemorate the 45th anniversary of its US release in 1979 (an international co-production, it had its world premiere in Italy in 1978) Gaylen Ross, who is also in the 1982 Romero and Stephen King anthology A horror showreflected on his experiences making the film and its lasting legacy.
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Speaking with varietyRoss said she signed on to play Fran, a Philadelphia television producer turned zombie apocalypse survivor, before she even knew who Romero was. Once cast, she took an active role in helping shape the character. “It was an interesting dialogue that George and I had early on about how are we going to make Fran not a victim, but part of the characters that were active?” she recalled. “He rewrote it while we were working, because he also felt we needed to empower her more.”
Amid some fun behind-the-scenes tidbits about what it was like filming nights in a mall that was open to customers during the day—Dawn of the Dead He had to take a break when the Christmas decorations went up and how Ross faked his way through an ice skating sequence, the actor said. Now a documentary filmmaker, she shared her memories of the film’s original ending. As horror fans have long known, Romero initially did not intend Fran and Ken Foree’s character, Peter, to make a desperate but hopeful escape. “We filmed it! I prepared all day for it,” “George was going to kill us; Peter was going to put a gun to his head and I was going to put my head on the helicopter blades. [El maquillador Tom Savini] I had already molded the head for that effect. ..but then the decision was that this was too dark an ending and someone had to survive. Whether or not anyone believes that we survived whether I drove a helicopter or not is another story.”
While Ross admits he was surprised Dawn of the Dead became a hit when it was released, and says its lasting impact is “incredible,” she knew from the beginning that she was part of a special project. “What I learned from George was not so much the horror vision of him, but the respect and generosity towards the actors, giving them the space… the only thing George had for everyone was kindness and respect. No matter how horrible it was, the story was that he did that and that’s why the actors would come back.”
Read the full interview with Gaylen Ross at Variety.
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